Raised By Wrestling
by WhereTheDarkOnesLurk
Summary: I'm horrible at summaries. Annora is a mysterious teenage girl raised by wrestling, wrapped up in the drama of a life she wasn't ready for. Rated T until further notice. (I renamed it :3 I'm sorry for any inconveniences this may have caused.) Follow, Favorite, Review! :D And don't forget to enjoy ;P
1. Chapter 1

I was inspired to write this pretty much the instant the show kicked off. As the show progressed, so did the story. This is, uh, what I ended up with. What happened here is kind of the same thing that happens when you're hungry, but you only have a random bunch of ingredients so you add them together and hope that it doesn't come out too bad. I hope you enjoy.

What you need to know: Annora is a [fictional] teenage girl whose mother died in a car accident when she was very young and her father died in the army two years ago. She doesn't speak a lot anymore, but it's just because she's shy. Because of the close relationship her father and Vince had, he takes her in and becomes her legal guardian. But, of course, he was a company to deal with already, so he takes help with her whenever he can, even from the wrestlers.

* * *

Annora played with her thumbs as she pretended not to hear the argument that was going on in front of her. Randy seemed to be trying to ignore it as well, but as the two grew louder, his jaw only got tenser.

"Will you give it a rest already?" Randy finally spoke up, irritated. "You're going to give me a headache before the show even starts."

They didn't seem to hear him. It wasn't until Daniel raised his hand in a threatening manner to Kane's face did Annora whimper aloud, and Randy noticed her discomfort for the first time.

"At least for the kid," Randy's voice rose and took on a different tone as he imagined how his own daughter might feel in a situation like this.

Kane was the first to shut up, then Daniel, and they both looked at Annora. Her cheeks flushed at the new found attention. She wasn't quite fond of attention.

"Alright," Kane sighed. "Let's go the Gorilla. It's about time," He said looking at the clock on the wall.

Kane left the green room, and so did Daniel. Randy clapped his hand gently on Annora's shoulder, offered her a kind half-smile, and left as well.

Considering the opening theme of Smackdown only just played, most of the superstars were in their dressing rooms. So Annora was left alone with the TV, and the long table of assorted finger foods, of course. But alas is she kept a conversation with either of them she would check herself into a mental facility before anyone even had the chance to catch her doing so.

Annora watched as Kane and Daniel stepped into the prepped up ring and knew this wasn't a good idea. A bad feeling bubbled inside of her stomach.

The Miz opens his mouth, and the bad feeling grows. She knew this was going to happen. What else is there to be expected from Miz TV? People don't turn on Jerry Springer and expect to see people's marriage problems get solved.

But then Daniel takes the mic, and Annora is relieved, but also confused. He was saying the exact opposite just before they left the room. And then an idea hit her, what if…. No, he wouldn't have, she thought. But it would make sense. It would make sense that Randy had a talk with him before they went out there.

Annora giggled. Randy Orton, the mediator.

And then, the Miz gets back the mic and everything goes downhill once again.

"What are you doing, Mike!" Annora groaned. She knew he was doing his job, not doing this to her, or even really to Daniel, but she was putting the blame on him at this moment.

He was picking on Daniel. Randy joined in on picking on Daniel and so did Kane and Daniel started to whine and the crowd started to cheer but Annora didn't know why and she just wanted to cry. Everything was confusing her and she hated things like and she just wanted ice cream.

Kane wanted to leave the ring, but Daniel stayed there and made things worse and Annora felt a harsh tug and pull as the words spewed got harsher and sharper. The longer it went on, the more anger grew in the back of her mind. She was angry because she knew that while she was originally sad at the words that were not even directed at her, she was not taken into consideration when they were said. She suppressed the feelings of anger when Kane fled the ring.

Annora ran out the room to meet him; it's not like she could bear to watch the rest of that anyway.

But Kane didn't acknowledge her, he didn't even slow down as he charged down the hallway past the greenroom. She followed, calling once. Only once would she waste her voice on another human being and if they didn't want to hear her the first time, they wouldn't.

He slammed the door of Team Hell No's dressing room the second she turned the corner. She had stopped there, at the end of the hallway, watching the door. She could hear things being carelessly strewn about in anger. When Kane reemerged again he stopped in the doorway. He looked at her briefly, before walking off in the other direction.

This was, to Kane, so that he would not take his anger out on the undeserving child. But this wasn't Annora's first conclusion.

She ran back to the greenroom to catch the rest of what was going on; to see if Daniel and Randy were even still out there.

She missed pretty much everything, except for one sentence spoken by Michael Cole. Everything else after that was tuned out.

_How are Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton gonna get along against the Shield tonight?_

Annora ran to the Gorilla. By the time she reached there, she was panting with her hands on her knees and Daniel and Randy had only just made it back through the curtain. Daniel stormed off, too busy with his own thoughts to even give the girl a second glance. Randy sneered slightly after him, Annora still trying to catch her breath. He turned and raised a brow at her.

"Are you," He paused, unsure of how to phrase so settling for the simple phrase, "Okay?"

Annora didn't answer. Randy hadn't entirely expecting her to, as he knew the girl wasn't exactly one for words. He never found it rude when she didn't speak, though, because though she wouldn't answer with words, she found other ways. Like right now, her facial expression told everything.

"Hey," He said, switching into that; 'Trust me, I'm an adult with life experience,' tone, "They'll be fine after tonight. It's just a little bump. Like," Randy thought for a moment, looking to the ceiling and then smiling, "Old married people."

Annora laughed and bit her lip to contain it. She always thought that about Daniel and Kane, and she was sure she wasn't the only one, but she was afraid to bring it up.

"See you around," Randy patted her head and walked away. Annora wasn't sure where to go now, so she just stood where she was. She was Chris Jericho approaching, doing his regular warm up jump-several-times-and-spin thing.

"Hey little lady," Chris greeted her in that eccentric way he speaks to, well, everyone.

"Hi," Annora spoke, even if it was softly. Chris smiled at her and bent over to stretch his legs. Annora blushed and tried not to watch him too obviously, but he didn't seem to notice. Or perhaps he's used to it.

When Chris left to the ring, Annora walked away to find other means of entertainment. She crossed Curtis Axel, followed by Paul Heyman. Paul nodded at her silently and mannerly she nodded back and each party continued on their separate ways.

She watched the majority of that match in the greenroom. When in there began to accumulate too much of a crowd for her liking, she left. She had lost interest anyway; Chris had lost the match because of Paul Heyman.

Annora was about to turn down a long stretch of hallway leading to most of the superstars' dressing rooms, when she saw Kane. She thought it would be best that she hid just out of sight, so she did. Ryback approached him and Annora covered her mouth to silence her breathing as she watched from the shadows.

She couldn't really make out what Ryback had said, but it didn't sound good. As she slinked closer and heard Kane defend Daniel, Annora accidentally let a little '_yes'_ slip away from her. She quickly covered her mouth, swearing to herself that both men had heard her. But they just continued with their pissing contest. And surprisingly, that's what it turned into. Annora watched, for once upset that she had to be silent as she wondered if they needed someone to lend them a ruler. She almost wanted to shout for them to get a room.

And then Kane walked away, and Ryback did that breathing thing he does and Annora, who was so close to success, laughed in her throat creating a snorting sound that revealed her hiding place.

Annora almost thought Ryback wouldn't even acknowledge her, just go about his business. But instead he walked up to her, and reached out a hand. At first she stared, stupidly she would admit to herself later. After realizing his intentions she grabbed his hand and he hoisted her up off the floor – she barely had to do a thing, really.

"Eavesdropping is a very bad habit," He stated simply.

Annora looked down at her feet and mumbled, "I'm sorry."

Ryback smirked. He hadn't actually had a conversation with Annora before, so he didn't know her not speaking a lot. At this current moment he mistook her timid disposition for her being intimidated by him.

"Why were you listening in?" Ryback asked.

Annora didn't answer, only looked at the tiled floor and hoped that he would go away.

But he didn't, and her persistence to be silent amused him further. He crouched down, so he could actually make eye contact with her. If she insisted on looking down, he'd have to compromise. "Cat got your tongue?"

Annora looked up, failing to stop herself from raising her brow. "I didn't have anything better to do," She answered his question from before, not entirely lying.

Ryback tilted his head. Her answer didn't exactly seem legit, but who was he to not trust the word of a stranger (who's a teenager, nonetheless). "Hmm," Ryback paused, and made a slight pout in concentration as he stood, "okay." And with that, he walked away.

Annora was confused, but left the area as quickly as she could, in the opposite direction.

Maybe that was a bad idea, because she got lost. After some time of roaming the identical hallways, she found the greenroom again. It wasn't as crowded before. And Kane and Ryback's match was about to start.

Annora could hear the sirens, not from the television, but from inside the building. Holy, they were loud. While Ryback stood in the back of it, making up his face, Annora remembered she was a Ryback fan when he first started out. She watched him make his way to the ring. To Kane.

She wasn't so sure if she was a fan now.

But when the match started out like any other one, Annora didn't feel so bad. And then almost as instantly as she had thought that things started to escalate and go in favor of the one person she didn't want it to.

Annora bit the bullet through the whole match, but when Ryback went for the table, she left the room. And she waited at the Gorilla.

She heard someone coming through the curtain, and when it was Ryback first, she should have expected it. But she didn't even consider having to see him.

Ryback stopped. "Waiting for me?" He joked.

Annora sneered slightly, and Ryback let a howl of laughter as he walked away, perfectly fine as Kane came stumbling through the curtain and officials came to give him a hand to the trainer's. She said nothing as she followed.

She left Kane in there, being tended to. He still wasn't in the mood to talk to her, and she couldn't find Daniel or Randy, so she headed to the workout room and hoped no one was in there. Nobody was. Nobody usually was at this time, anyway.

Annora checked the hallway to make sure no one was near. Seeing that she appeared to be alone on this side of the building, she tossed her loose red hair over her shoulder and unleashed on an already worn-out punching bag.

Annora held in all her rage for moments like these when she was alone and she hated to admit it, but it was making her develop a bit of an anger issue. Simple punches turned into a pattern of swings and uppercuts and round-house-kicks that slowly awoke the little bit of muscle she had developed from doing these sessions.

Her huffs of rage and both physical and emotional exhaustion clouded her mind and the room and floated under the door and into the hallway. The approaching man hesitated at the sound, and wondered what he was about to interrupt as he reached the rarely shut door.

When he entered and found the girl, her back to his front so his presence kept unknown, he stood and watched her in bewildered amazement.

Annora was completely oblivious to the person only a few feet behind her, watching her, as she sped up her punches. Her hair would occasionally flounced its way in front of her eyes and she would have to stop and push it back, dreading not having put it up that evening.

"Maybe this can help," The roguish voice almost made a scream accompany Annora's jump. Not thinking logically, and tightly wound up enough as it was, she spun around and went to sucker punch the man in the chest.

But her much smaller fist was caught in a larger, rougher one and she looked up to meet the steely eyes of Ryback. He continued to hold her right hand, still enclosed in a fist, and used his other hand to put something other her head. It felt lopsided, and therefore a little uncomfortable. Instead of removing it like any other normal person would when Ryback let go of her hand, Annora attempted to fix it until it was in what she determined was its normal position. She could feel it was a beanie.

"So you don't have to stop punching for your hair," Ryback explained. "I understand how it is; I have that problem all the time." Ryback grinned at his own joke.

Annora would've laughed, but she was really tired. "Don't you need it for when you go out to the ring?" It was the most he'd ever heard her say and he almost missed it, too enveloped in his wit.

"Huh? Oh, I have to wear my Merch one," Ryback pulled the one he was referring to out his duffel bag and shoved it back in when she'd seen it.

Annora looked over to the mirrored wall. What she had on her head was a plain black beanie, and must've been his personal one. She looked back over to him, trying to decide whether to thank him or give it back politely, but she saw he had already walked away towards one of the machines.

Annora shyly walked back up to the punching bag. She'd never done this in front of somebody, and nobody even knew that she did this. But he seemed like he had been in the room for a while before speaking up, so she figured she would continue. And while she went back to punching, even if it was a bit slower and more cautious of herself than before, Ryback watched her.

Annora didn't have boxing gloves or tape or anything; she had to do it bare handed. So she punched with pretty much the side of her fist. That was okay though, because she could still work on speed. But as she was punching and focusing too much on not going overboard because of the other person in the room, she accidentally planted fully on the middle of her fist. Now, if you've ever punched a punching bag without boxing gloves on, even if it was just the side of your fist, you'd understand just how much this hurts.

Annora let out a strained, high-pitched sound of disapproval as she sunk into the punching bag, throwing her arms around it to hold herself up shortly. Still leaning against the punching bag, she raised her arm (the whole thing was throbbing from the impact) and looked at her knuckles. The middle and ring knuckle were already bruised purple and numb. As she straightened, stood up away from the punching bag, she bumped into a wall of muscle.

Ryback didn't touch her hand, but he looked at it, then at her face. "It needs ice," He said, and he turned.

Annora's brow creased. Was he helping her? Why?

"But," Annora protested. She was afraid that people would find out.

Ryback turned, a brow raised and his eyes hardened, "But? If you don't ice it you'll be lucky to even feel your fingers much less bend them once it's done swelling."

Annora frowned and nodded, and Ryback left to get ice. When he returned, Annora was still standing there, looking at her hand. The skin surrounding the purple swell had turned pink and from her middle knuckle, a small slit of red had appeared and blood trickled slowly down her finger.

She was led over to the bench, and the blood was cleaned off and her hand was wrapped tightly in gauze, "To make sure you don't make it worse," He explained as he was doing it. He handed her an ice pack.

"Why don't you have gloves?"

Annora raised her eyebrow in confusion, and then realized he was referring to boxing gloves, not making small talk. She shrugged and winced when the blue ice pack made contact with her injured hand.

"You must've known that was going to happen sooner or later," Ryback tilted his head at her, resting his elbows on his knees. She didn't answer. He sighed and followed her gaze to the floor. "Gone quiet again, I see."

Before the silence could grow deeper, a cameraman entered the room. "Uh," He said, when he noticed Ryback and Annora, "We're going to shoot a promo in here soon."

"We're not in your way," Ryback announced calmly, and all Annora could do was sit back wide-eyed as the cameraman blinked and obediently walked to the other side of the room.

Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan entered simultaneously.

"What happened to your hand?" Randy asked the second he saw her, eyeing Ryback. Daniel was too preoccupied to even look at her. Annora pointed to the punching bag. Randy knitted his brow and opened his mouth to speak, but the cameraman interrupted.

"15 seconds," He said, and pointed the camera at Daniel.

Ryback and Annora watched silently, unknown to the audience on the other side of the room as the promo was being shot.

"Okay, alright Daniel; can I ask you a favor? Maybe put your personal problems with whoever you have problems with aside for tonight?" Randy asked, and for a split moment he had looked over at Annora. Annora frowned.

Her frown deepened as the conversation between the two tensed and tensed, and Randy walked away.

"Alright, cut." The cameraman sighed, and walked out as well.

For the first time that evening, Daniel looked over at Annora.

"What… What are you doing with him?" Daniel's face filled with horrified shock. "You know what he did to me! I guess even you don't respect me enough either to at least not befriend my enemies."

Annora just looked at him, her mouth agape. He didn't even notice her hand, the ice pack or her face that was still etched in pain due to it.

"I don't know why I expected you'd defend yourself," Daniel muttered with a scowl before stomping out of the room.

Annora inhaled sharply while pulling her knees up to her chest, and it was followed by a sniffle. Ryback had sat there and watched the whole thing unfold in disgust.

"No matter what he's going through right now, that is no way to speak to someone. Especially not a girl." Ryback glared at the doorway. Annora's mind was too fogged to answer.

The small television in the little gym playing Fandango's music broke through Annora's thoughts and reminded her that the show was still going on. She felt silly that it had actually slipped her mind. She looked at Ryback, and he was watching it.

"Why do you hang out with them?" He asked, not looking away from the TV. Annora blushed and looked towards the TV too. She knew now he could tell she was looking at him.

"I don't know," Annora whispered.

"Daniel obviously doesn't treat you very well," Ryback said, a bit venomously.

"Only recently," Annora admitted.

"Doesn't matter. Does Kane say anything when he says crap like that?" Ryback asked. He sounded like a some kind of social worker.

"Sometimes. Other times, I guess he avoids making an argument which I can't blame him for." Ryback nodded.

Annora was talking a lot, and it felt weird. Not just mentally, but her throat felt a little strained from not being used to being used so often anymore.

"They're obviously going through a little stuff right now, though," Ryback continued. "Maybe you should stray from them for a little. You can hang with me."

Annora blinked and turned to him. He was watching her contently, awaiting an answer.

"They don't mean to be mean to me," Annora said softly.

"Sure, but intentional or not, it's still mean. Am I mean?" Annora bit her lip and her eyebrows curved upwards. Ryback laughed loudly, then rephrased his question; "Am I mean to you?"

Annora thought for a moment. "Well, no."

Ryback smiled, as kindly as he could manage. "I didn't think so. That ice pack has melted, let's go return it."

The change of subject and Ryback's quick move to get up and head to the door had Annora's mind reeling and she didn't have time to stop and think before following him.

While he went inside the trainer's where he took the ice pack, to probably refreeze it, Annora stood in front of the vending machine. It had water, juice, and a wider selection of sodas. She settled on a classic coke. But when she dug in her right pocket, and then her left, and found them both empty, she frowned. Ryback came out the trainer's and found her that way, and before she could wipe the frown off her face to make him think that anything was wrong, he had already made his way over to her with a dollar in his hand and shoving it into the slot in the machine.

Annora muttered a quiet 'thank you' when he handed her the coca cola can.

Having nothing else to do, she was just going to follow Ryback around. He seemed okay with it anyway. But then she heard the Shield's theme song echo throughout the building.

She looked up at Ryback, "I…"

His mouth tightened and he cut her off with a curt nod, "I get it."

She ran to the Gorilla.

By the time she got there, she only got to say a quick hello and goodbye to Randy before his theme song sounded and he had to leave.

"Good luck Daniel," Annora said quickly when he walked up. He still had a scowl on his face.

"Where's Ryback, huh?"

Annora frowned, "Daniel, don't be childish, I was only sitting by him."

Daniel fumed. Goat face, weakest link… and now he was childish? "The longest sentence you have ever said to me is an insult. Great. I don't have time for this."

"No, Daniel, I-"

"I said I don't have time for this. You're the one who's childish. Go… go away." Daniel huffed through gritted teeth, stroking the frustration out of his beard as he walked through the curtain.

Annora stood there for a moment in shock. And then, everything built up inside of her and found their way to her eyes and escaped down her cheeks. She ran down the hallway, back the way she came, growling and throwing everything down that she was strong enough to.

She found Ryback. He had changed into normal human clothes, and was on his way to the parking lot.

"I thought you went back to Danny boy?" Ryback said in a gruff, sarcastic tone. It was only until after the words had left his mouth had he taken in her puffy, reddened cheeks and her wet eyes.

Annora only shook her head.

"What's wrong?" It felt like a stupid, cliché question to ask but Ryback felt himself asking it anyway.

"Can I go with you?" Annora asked quickly, her fingers locked together and hanging in front of her chest.

Ryback blinked, taken aback by her innocence. He looked around. There was no one. No one to witness them leaving together.

Ryback inwardly shook his head. It's not like he was a serial killer, or a rapist, or anything. He was a man, and she was a girl, and what kind of person would he be if he left her to deal with what she had been dealing with for far too long? Not a very good person, he reckoned.

So he didn't.

Annora sat in the passenger seat of his rented car, the windows down and the wind in her hair as she giggled and watched the arena grow smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror.

* * *

Should I make this into a series? Would any of you like to read more of these? Or should I end this monstrosity here and now?

Please, don't be shy; leave your comments and opinions.


	2. Chapter 2

**RAW 10th June 2013**

* * *

Annora sat in the passenger seat of Ryback's car once again, but this was a different day and a different city. She had snuck into the hotel room she had shared with Randy Orton while she was in the hands of him (and Team Hell No), got her stuff, left her room key on the table along with a little note saying she would see him in the next city, and snuck back out.

Her phone had received many calls that had gone straight to voice mail mostly from Randy, some from Kane. Annora didn't know why Daniel hadn't tried to call her, but she was glad after what he had said to her. She had thought it over and decided that if he had the gall to phone her, she would pick up and give him a piece of her mind.

Annora had felt bad about not answering Randy, because he had been nothing but nice to her. She had no choice but to sneak her stuff out of the room and leave without permission because she knew there was no way he would let her go with someone else when Vince had left her with him. Randy probably didn't even tell Vince she had run off with one of his employees, because if he had she would have been found by now; chased down by a helicopter or something, forced out of the car by a SWAT team and Ryback would get tranquilized like an animal and Annora would be sent off to reform school.

When Annora told this to Ryback he laughed. She decided not to tell him that Vince actually told her last summer that he would do that if she thought of rebelling with some boy.

Ryback chose a parking space close to the arena doors. "Why do you think Randy didn't tell Vince? You could've been kidnapped."

"I left him a note. Vince has a lot dealing with right now," Annora said, unbuckling her seatbelt and getting out of the car. Ryback watched her tentatively.

"Too much to even notice when his own responsibility isn't there?" Ryback said, getting out of the car and locking it.

Annora turned slightly and looked at him, then at the ground. "Things between him and Paul are tense. I'm sure you've noticed." Annora frowned, but tried to hide it by keeping her face down. Ryback noticed anyway. "It's okay, though. They always get over it."

She began to walk towards the entrance before he could produce a response, and he followed. When they got inside, he stopped her.

"I, uh, have some business to take care of." His eyes were distant now, and his mind was busy. His thoughts were on John Cena now. "See you later." Annora nodded and walked away. She went the other direction.

"There you are!" Annora recognized the voice as Randy's. She could vaguely hear the Shield's music in the background.

Before she saw Randy, she felt him. She was swooped up off the ground in arms that must've underrated their own strength in the moment. "God damn it, don't ever do anything like that again! You better not be pregnant!"

"I'm not, Randy!" Annora blushed widely as she was set back down on Earth.

"Where have you been?" Randy asked, holding her at arm's length, examining her.

Annora said nothing. She looked at Daniel Bryan, who had been standing there quietly and stone-faced. She could tell instantly that he knew.

Randy felt the air grow cold as they made eye contact, and decided to let it go. "Whatever," He waved his hands in the air dismissively, "At least you're fine."

Annora looked around. "Kane?" She wasn't calling him, but asking where he was shortly.

"He's in a match, with Dean Ambrose," Daniel answered dryly.

Randy looked between the two and clicked his jaw. "Come on, you two. We're going to miss it." They walked to the greenroom in silence.

When they got to the room Kane was ahead in the match. They sat on the couch and watched, Annora in the middle of the two men. During the commercial break, an official entered and called Randy and Daniel out for something for the WWE app, and Annora was left alone.

Or so she thought.

She felt she was being watched, but she ignored it. The room wasn't empty; it was a greenroom after all. But then she felt a more malicious presence grow from both sides and the weight shifted on both ends of the couch as two people sat next to her. She didn't want to look, but she knew she had to.

They were Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.

Annora looked around the room for help, but she found none. There was none. Literally everyone had fled the room. _No, no,_ she thought, _this is not happening._

"They your boys?" Roman asked, his head facing the TV but his eyes watching her from their corner, chilling her blood.

"Huh?" Annora's voice had gone unnaturally high.

"Team Hell No, and Randy," Seth took his time telling her. Annora felt afraid to look at him full on, so she only looked at him from the corner of her blurry eyes, and only briefly. He was uncomfortably close, and had his arm slung over the back of the couch. There was a grin on his face that told her he knew she was afraid, and to make matters worse, he liked it.

"They follow you around like you're their Mama," Roman said, his voice deep and laced with amusement. Both he and Seth laughed at the look on Annora's face.

"What, nothing to say to that, Princess?" Seth crooned mockingly, tilting his chin up and leaning closer and Roman did the same on the other side of her. She could feel the evil close in on her.

Annora said nothing. Maybe if she ignored them, they would lose interest in tormenting her and they would leave her alone. She folded her arms across her chest.

"Aww, look Roman! She's pouting," Seth let out a dark, bone-chilling chuckle.

"How cute," Roman's voice grew darker and came out more of a rumble than anything.

"Yeah, almost cute enough to," Seth's voice dropped to a buttery whisper and he kept inching closer and Annora's eyes shut tightly as she almost started to shake.

"Seth, it's almost time," Roman cut in, all business again.

"Shit," Seth's head snapped to the TV.

Annora opened her eyes and saw them both get up quickly. Seth stopped at the door and looked back at her; "Till next time," He muttered, winked, and left.

Annora sat there, her feet pulled up to her chest. She was too spooked to even think about the last thing Roman had said, but it all made sense when Kane was blindsided by Roman and Seth.

Annora jumped up from her seat on the couch, staring at the TV in shock. She shouted, as if they could hear her. But she had to shout now, because any nerve she had developed during the weekend had dissipated completely in the few minutes they had sat by her.

And then Daniel and Randy ran out there, and anything she wanted to do them was done for her. Maybe that made her a coward, but at least she was a happy coward. She watched all three men, 'her boys', as Roman had called them before, stand in the ring. She tried to figure out what they were thinking. When the commercial came on, she ran to the Gorilla.

They were just getting back.

"Hey, not so fast," Randy said when he'd seen her running up. "What's wrong?" He asked when he saw the distressed look on her face.

Annora's original plan was to tell them what had happened. But then she saw their faces. It looked like all three of them had aged a little since Friday, and they all had so much on their plates to begin with. The last thing they needed was somebody else in on it, especially somebody like her who was viewed as defenseless. It was about time she fought her own battles.

She decided to keep the encounter to herself.

"Nothing," She whispered, her eyes looking distant for a short moment, and then she quickly plastered a small smile on her face. "Kick the Shield's asses tonight, okay?"

They lifted their eyebrows. Randy; "You sure everything okay?"

"Yes, yes," Annora assured, nodding.

The conversion stopped there when the show came back on. They watched from the little monitor that Jerry was revealing who Daniel Bryan was going to be fighting. The drum roll made Annora bite her lip and hold her breath; which she supposed was the point of it.

When she seen it was Seth, she couldn't find the power in her to stop holding her breath.

Roman was creepy, yes, but Seth was invasive. Frankly, she wanted his ass to be kicked harder.

The monitor began playing a clip from Friday that Annora didn't see. She was shocked, to say the least. Annora had no idea that Daniel had dropkicked Randy or that Randy had RKO'd Daniel and the next thing she knew they were arguing about and an official had grabbed her elbow and pulled her back a few steps as a cameraman stepped up and began recording it. Annora covered her mouth as she watched.

This was a good thing, because she almost gasped when Kane jumped in. His voice cracked so many times, she wondered how much that match really took out of him. Surely more than he was letting on.

"You know what Kane, you're right. The last thing Daniel needs to do is fight me," Randy said, a smirk growing on his face as peered down at the much smaller man. _Oy, this is bad,_ Annora thought. He was purposely picking a fight, now.

"You think I'm afraid of you and your beady eyes and your horrible haircut and your bad tattoos?!"

At this point Annora had to be forcefully dragged away by three –grown men- officials with one of their hands covering her mouth so that the –rarely heard from her- obscenities would not be captured on live television.

"What is the matter with you, Miss?" One of them said in a tone that was hushed so that he wouldn't be heard by the mic either.

"Daniel's a liar and Randy's beautiful," Annora spoke, the filter in her mind broken.

The official's face twisted as he was not expecting that. "Good Lord. I think it's safest for everybody if you go off that way till the promo's over, Ma'm."

Annora blushed and nodded as she walked away, looking back on the arguing men once while she could still see them. Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox had joined them, and Kane didn't look too happy about that.

Following the orders of the official, Annora turned and went down a random hallway. The hallway was long and seemed to lead to nowhere, and the further she walked, the less and less noise from the inside of the arena could be heard. She was starting to get a bad feeling.

And then she turned the corner. And what she found was not what she was looking for.

Reigns and Rollins stood at the end of it, a dead end. There was just a door. They had their hands behind their backs and they stood on either side of the door as if they were guarding it. But they also looked straight ahead, as if they were not, as if… they were waiting on her.

They began to run.

They began to chase her.

Annora screamed and ran. She wasn't sure of where she was going, but she kept running as she knew there was only one place to go and that was back where she had came.

She looked back. They weren't close, but they were gaining on her. She may have been smaller and lighter than them, but they were taller with longer legs, not to mention they were professional athletes with more stamina.

Annora started to slow, and her heart started to ache. She had come to a crossroad of sorts; two identical hallways each going the opposite direction. Her mind must've been too busy to have noticed it before. She didn't know which one she had came from, but she prayed it was left. That was the direction she was sticking to.

She could hear sound down the hallway, just out of sight. This made her speed up as tears streaked down her painfully red face.

Annora's calves burned and she struggled to turn her neck and look behind her, to see how far they were, to see if she was doomed, when BAM! Into a wall of meat she crashed.

She screamed, and when she thought she was going to hit the floor, large hands caught her by the back of her elbows and stood her back up, albeit on unsteady feet. She had bumped right into Ryback.

"Ryback! The… Shield... chase… they…!" Annora's voice was cracked and broken terribly now and she could hardly get a word out due to how consistent her panting was. She spun around, moving quickly to hide behind him at the same time. But while she did so, she saw that the hallway behind her was eerily empty.

"What? No! That's impossible," Annora cried once she had caught her breath.

"Calm down, what's going on?" Ryback asked her as she leaned against the wall for support, her eyes wide and paranoid. Ryback was concerned now.

"Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns were chasing me, I swear! I…. I don't know where…" Annora trailed off and looked down.

"Hey, hey calm down," Ryback said, seeing her eyes becoming red again. "You should go rinse your face with some cold water, or something. Get the redness to go away. Then when you calm down you can better explain what happened."

Annora nodded. When she went into the bathroom to wash her face, she forced Ryback to stand guard outside. When she finished, she felt slightly better. Her eyes were less red now, and her cheeks weren't sticky anymore.

She followed Ryback to his dressing room.

"Now, what happened?" Annora sat on a bench, and Ryback stood in front of her as she told him how she had been walking and bumped into them. She decided not tell him, either, about what had happened in the greenroom. She wanted more information on that little incident before she started any trouble.

When she was finished, Ryback tilted his head and knitted his brow in thought. He sighed; "They're just trying to scare you, just 'cause they can. Don't worry about it," He tried to assure her. She wished she could believe him, but if he knew about what happened in the greenroom, he wouldn't even be saying that. "You said they were standing by a door?"

Annora nodded.

Ryback paused for a moment; "Maybe that was their dressing room, and Dean was in there, or something. They probably just wanted to scare you away from the area, without actually hurting you."

"I guess," Annora bit her lip. It did make sense. Unless, of course, if you tied it in with the incident, which was all she could think about.

"Ryback," An official popped his head through the door, pausing when he saw Annora, and staring at her briefly. "Vickie needs to see you about your match."

"One minute," Ryback said, and the official left. "I guess I'll see you later, kid."

Annora exited the room with Ryback, but they both went opposite directions. She decided to find the greenroom and see what was she was missing.

Ironically, it was 'her boys', and the Shield.

Randy was in the ring now, and he was dominating Roman. Unfortunately, as soon as Annora thought that, Roman had backed Randy into the corner with a sick smile on his face. And then momentum was back to Randy, and the crowd was getting into it and so was Annora. She smiled; this was actually a pretty good match. But bothered her, though, was that Roman kept smiling.

But then Seth jumped in, and so did Daniel, and oh boy, was the crowd really into it then. Too bad it was ruled a no contest, though.

Annora winced as Seth got straight to it when his match started. But he didn't have momentum for long; and Annora agreed with JBL; Daniel Bryan is fun to watch in the ring. He was unleashing a hell of an ass kicking on Seth and Annora was beginning to cheer louder than the audience.

Annora began to curse under her breath when Seth attempted a pin on Daniel. When Seth put Daniel in his own move, Annora's mouth opened in shock. That had nothing to do with winning the match. He was sending a message.

And then, fast as lightning as if the previous act had given him some new found adrenaline, Daniel Bryan countered it and bent Seth Rollins into a pretzel. Annora laughed hysterically.

The rest of the match was –just as the audience had cheered- awesome. At the end, Seth tried once again to send a message, but Daniel AND Randy stopped him in his tracks. Annora grinned widely as she watched Daniel celebrate in the middle of the ring. When they began to show recaps of earlier in the night, Annora made her way to the Gorilla.

She made it there before Daniel and Randy made it back; they were probably still celebrating. When they walked through the curtain she jumped them.

"Oh my God, that was awesome!" Annora exclaimed.

Daniel smiled, his bloodied mouth making him look a little crazy, "Yeah, felt awesome."

"He needs to go to the trainer," Randy said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Uh, nah, I think I'll be fine," Daniel said, adrenaline still pumping through him.

"I think it's best you make sure of that, the last thing I need is an already beat up opponent," Randy smirked.

Daniel opened his mouth to speak, the crease that showed up between his eyebrows showing Annora it wasn't going to be good. She interrupted him.

"If you guys start arguing I'll gladly kick you both in the crotch."

Silence pursued for a moment before Daniel broke it; "Is she being more talkative than usual?"

"Yes, so it seems. Perhaps she's on drugs?" Randy pondered.

"Perhaps she is." Daniel stroked his beard as he joined in on the fun.

"Har har , go to the trainer's before you fall apart." Annora stuck her tongue out at Daniel as he walked away laughing.

"Well, I don't have anything else planned for tonight," Randy said, and looked at Annora. "What about you? You have a match I don't know about?"

Annora giggled and shook her head.

"No? Well, ready to go then?" Annora nodded, and they left smiling.

Neither of them knew that they were being watched, and by how many eyes.

* * *

**Okay, so how was that?**

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